Metal-Ceramic Material Compounds Made by Additive Manufacturing

Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies of ceramic components are powder technological routes including subsequent debindering and sintering steps. So far, AM methods for ceramics are limited to single material applications. Goal of the European Project CerAMfacturing was to develop multi material components by additive manufacturing methods for personalized medical products. For that purpose, two AM methods – Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) and Thermoplastic 3D Printing (T3DP) – have been developed for a multi material approach by combining zirconia with stainless steel. The presentation will introduce feedstock-based ceramic AM methods at a glance and will discuss the requirements necessary in the process such as in the materials development for combining ceramics with metals in general and by both AM methods. Special focus will be laid on the adjustment of the shrinking behavior of the ceramic and the metallic component for the co-sintering process. A special high-energy milling process needed for increasing the total shrinkage of the steel powder will be introduced in this context. The next trend in Additive Manufacturing is hybridization of both, processes and materials. The presentation deals with the combination of stainless steel and zirconia - a material combination with property combinations like electrically conductive/electrically insulating, metallic gloss/white color, ductility/hardness, etc. The material compound is intersting for applications like medical devices, for instance for micro surgery, for tools or for jewelry. Beside the AM processes FFF and T3DP which had to be developed for a multi material approach, the material combination itself is very challenging, because the material compound attains its final properties by a co-sintering step. The coefficient of thermal extension (CTE), the shrinking behavior, sintering conditions and total shrinkage of both components must fit exactly for avoiding failure of the manufactured part. The presentation combines machine development for two AM processes with process and material compound development and will reflect the results of a European Horizon 2020 research project finished one month before